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Hope everyone is enjoying so far. Thank you, Sunflower Fran, for the reviews. Don't worry we'll find out more about Bella's past soon enough. Let me know what you guys think!

EPOV

I watched her walk away from me. I could see how uncomfortable she was with the third degree. That she was just humoring them. I wondered why she was humoring them at all- was it for me? Did she like spending time with me? I could never really be sure with her, but sometimes I swore she wanted to be here as much as I did. At least, I hoped she did.

I turned to face the four idiots that had chased her off. "Thanks, guys. That's great- really great."

I stood up from where we always sat, and was getting increasingly more annoyed with each passing second. Alice started pouting, "You're the one that's been MIA for weeks now. We were worried that you were sitting all alone somewhere."

"Well...I'm fine. I'm not alone. Although, now I'm sure I will be," I cringed at the thought. I needed to make this right. To apologize to her for the interrogation that my family had just give her.

"It's not Alice's fault she can't handle a few questions, Edward," Rosalie accused. "I mean who does she think she is? It wasn't even that serious."

I was quickly losing my patience. I reminded myself that this was my family, my friends. They meant well. I was just thankful that the bell rang when it did.

I couldn't say I was surprised when Bella didn't show up to Biology. Although I kind of was surprised, she had been pretty good about coming to class lately. We walked with each other, even if we didn't say anything we'd just walked side by side. But not today.

I thought about the last few weeks that I'd spent with Bella. She was always surprising me. She was better at Biology than I was. She almost never let it show, but she put a lot of work into school, even though she definitely didn't have to. She was wicked smart, the kind of smart that can't be taught. But she was book smart too. Every lab we had was mostly Bella's work.

We were blood typing today. I wondered what kind of snarky comments Bella would have made today. Would she have made fun of the way Mike Newton looked like he was about to puke at the sight of his own blood? How did she react to her own blood? I imagined her making an excuse to not do it. But maybe she would, and she'd suggest something crazy like a blood pact. I could never really be sure with Bella.

Another example of how Bella always kept me on my toes, the fact that she showed up to Theater after ditching Biology. We'd been monologuing for a week now, I didn't really understand how it was taking this long considering it was 30 seconds to a minute long. Today was the final day to do the assignment, so I guess that's why Bella showed up.

I tried catching her eye, but it didn't work as she breezed by me to her seat. I was about to turn around and vehemently apologize when class started.

"Alright, boys, girls! We're almost done with your first monologue assignment, isn't that exciting?" I looked around the room and saw not an ounce of excitement anywhere. "Alright, only a few more kids today."

This assignment had only been 30 seconds up to a minute of a prepared monologue. Then next assignment was a full minute and then the dreaded 3-5 minute long monologue at the end of the semester. I sighed and refrained from banging my head on the desk. I was sick of hearing the same 5 Shakespearean monologues over and over again, people stumbled over the same parts over and over. I couldn't really complain- my monologue was straight from Shakespeare too, I mean it was literally the most unoriginal choice anyone could have picked.

We had 10 minutes left and I was about ready to yank my hair out. At least as soon as class was done I could work on apologizing to Bella.

"Alright," Ms. Smith looked at her roster. "I think there's only one student left. Isabella?"

I turned to look at her and she looked as bored and uninterested as I was.

"Bella," she corrected sharply, clearly not in a pleasant mood. She sighed before making her way up the row. She looked completely unfazed by standing in front of the class, everyone else had been all red and sweaty at even the idea of standing up in front of everyone.

Bella just stood there for a second, I couldn't tell if she had forgotten what she had prepared or just hadn't prepared anything. She told me last week that she'd just wing it because she didn't plan on preparing for something this stupid but I didn't really believe her until this moment.

She rolled her shoulders back and took a deep breath.

"Mon amour, je sais que tu m'aimes aussi

Tu as besoin de moi, tu as besoin de moi dans ta vie

Tu ne peux vivre sans moi

Et je mourrais sans toi

Je tuerais pour toi"

Bella walked slowly around the makeshift stage. It didn't look purposeful at all, not calculated, but also not clumsily. It was almost like she was walking on air, with her only intention being to make sure our eyes stayed on her. To make us pay attention. Each syllable was drawn out and breathy, sending chills down my spine even without knowing a single word she had said. It was like Bella really meant every word she said- that or she was a really good actress.

And I didn't know if I should be scared of that or not.

Everyone was silent, not even the normal polite applause from the few kind souls in the class. Even Ms. Smith looked surprised, a hard thing to do if the rumors were true that someone had done a monologue from that weird vampire movie. Bella stood there still waiting for our teacher to say something, anything.

When Ms. Smith finally collected herself, she looked incredibly pleased with herself. Like she had given Bella the inspiration to do that well.

"Well, class, you should all take a note from Bella." She looked way too proud of herself for remembering Bella's name. "That was splendid. And in French? Job well done."

The funny thing was Bella looked completely comfortable while everyone was watching her shocked that she had done the monologue in French. But I had never seen her look more uneasy than when she was being praised for a job well done. As she walked back to her seat, her eyes only slightly flickered my way.

I sighed and prepared myself to chase after her as soon as the bell rang. I ran every single morning, I could beat Bella to her truck. Just to apologize and then the ball would be in her court.

The bell rang and I all but bolted to stop Bella. But she didn't run or pull her normal disappearing act that she normally did when she was pissed with me. Instead she grabbed her bag and turned around to face me. She nudged her head in the opposite direction and without saying a word spun on her heels and started walking. She didn't once turn to see if I was following her. There was something about Bella- maybe the mystery, maybe the beauty, maybe some other x factor that just compelled people to her. All like moths to a flame. I passed Emmett in the hallway as I followed Bella like a lost puppy and tossed him my keys. We all carpooled in a silver Volvo, but I was usually the one to drive us back and forth. I had a feeling that I would not be driving my siblings home today.

When we reached Bella's old pickup, she finally turned back to me. With a nudge of her head, she asked, "You coming?"

I nodded much too enthusiastically to be even remotely considered cool.

I ran to the other side of the car and hopped in. Her in the driver's seat, me her willing passenger.

"You know, it isn't fair to be that good at monologuing, Bella," I teased, breaking the silence. "Really, you make the rest of us look bad. And then in French, completely unfair."

She blushed and started chewing on her lip to hide the small smile. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. But this was Bella, so she also stuck out her middle finger to tel me exactly what she thought about my teasing.

"I'm being serious- I didn't even know you knew French," I laughed.

Her eyebrows pulled in and she looked genuinely confused. "I don't know French."

"Certainly seemed like it," I scoffed.

"What you guys don't listen to Lana Del Rey?" It was my turn to be confused, it was safe to say that I'd never heard of that person. "Seriously, no alternative music?"

I shook my head and laughed. "We're more of an 80's and top pop kind of town."

"Absolutely tasteless." She took her eyes off the road for a second to look in her glove compartment.

"Maybe keep your eyes on the road, Bella?" I panicked and took hold of the steering wheel.

"Here it is!" She held up a CD. "Born to Die- the Paradise Edition, a fucking classic."

She popped the CD in and took back the steering wheel. We remained in silence as the music started playing in the background. I listened to it intently, hoping that it would provide more insight into Bella. That it would help me understand the enigma. Add one more piece to the puzzle. And it kind of did- it was exactly the kind of music I expected her to listen to. I was also right that this wasn't small town music. Not by a long shot. I wouldn't listen to this with my parents or any other adult around. It wasn't exactly lighthearted music either. Even the title, Born to Die. That wasn't something just anyone would listen to.

And I was pretty sure I'd never think of Pepsi the same way ever again.

We listened to the music for a minute before I decided to ask what we were actually going to do. "So- not that I'm not having fun with you. And that I'm really pleased that you're not pissed at me... I'm really sorry about that by the way. Emmett and Alice mean well, but they don't really understand boundaries-"

"Edward," she interrupted me. I looked over at her and her eyebrow was raised in amusement. It immensely benefitted me that she found me endearing or maybe amusing. "Back to your question?"

"Right," I nodded. "What are we doing?"

"Looking for something to do in this boring ass town."

"And where are we doing that?"

"I think we're going to LaPush. You okay with that?"

As uncaring as Bella pretended to be, I knew that if I said I wasn't okay with going to the reservation or that I needed to go home, she'd drop me off or figure out something else we could do all without an ounce of teasing.

Okay, maybe a little teasing.

"Yeah. Do you know anyone on the rez?"

"Yeah, Charlie's best friend, my godfather, he lives on the reservation. Him and his son, I don't remember his son but apparently we were friends before I moved away."

The evening started with a walk down the beach. It was a crisp day with a slight chill in the wind, the moisture hanging in the air didn't help the situation either, but I couldn't bring myself to pay attention when I had Bella walking right next to me. Our actually first stop had been to Billy Black's house. My father and him were acquaintances which left me only vaguely familiar with him. He embraced Bella and told us we could find Jacob, his son, on the beach with his friends. So here we were. The fog wasn't obscuring our view today, so we found them fairly quickly.

Bells had been her normal self as we walked toward the group of people. I watched her beautiful smile every time she turned to face me or walked backwards trying to keep her eyes on me. I liked when we were like this, it was easy, good. Scratch that, it was perfect. Just me and her laughing and talking about anything and everything, I'd never get enough of that.

But when Jacob Black recognized her, I watched her come alive. Could I call it that? The way her eyes normally glistened was gone, replaced my something more flat. Almost lifeless. But her expressions, her actions- all more animated like she needed this. Maybe I was just reading too deeply into a situation that didn't need to be psychoanalyzed. Or maybe I was just jealous. Okay, I knew I was jealous. When his arms wrapped around her and slightly picked her up off the floor, I was jealous, until I saw the look of discomfort flash across her face. And just as I was about to say something, it was gone as fast as it had appeared.

Jake and his entire posse- did people still use that word? Or was it another way I couldn't really keep up with Bella? Well they lead us up to a bunch of cliffs, apparently they dove when the weather was nicer, I didn't really believe that anyone would be that stupid to jump from this height.

I watched as Bella looked out into the distance, only turning around to reach out to me. A victory in my mind, considering she hadn't asked Jacob Black to be here next to her. We were about 2 feet from the edge when Bella slowly inched closer and closer, never once letting go of my hand. I was a pretty strong guy, but I wasn't about to bet Bella's life on it when we were this high up. It made me nervous to think about what would happen if she went over. She flounced around the edge and let the wind whip her hair around. She inched closer and closer, until I got too anxious and pulled her back. "Maybe we should take a step back, Bella?"

It was like a trance had been lifted and she willingly took several steps back from the edge. I could see the fear in her eyes as if she hadn't been fully cognizant of how far she had actually gone. Like she had scared herself or something.

With that, we began our trek back to the beach. Bella and I trailed the larger group, walking slow with the warmth of the sunset creating an unbelievably romantic ambiance. I hadn't been particularly akin to romance before, but seeing Bella like that was so natural. Right now, I couldn't stop thinking about the way her ponytail swung back and forth as we walked. And how the sunset brought out the more reddish tones in her hair.

It didn't stop that aggravating thought that there was something different about the way Bella was acting right now. "Bella?"

She turned around and started backwards down the incline.

"Are you okay?"

She looked confused for a beat but there was still that smile that made my knees weak. "I'm great. You?"

I was about to respond when I saw a tree root sticking out of the ground. It was like slow motion watching Bella walk right into it- in hindsight I should have told her that walking backwards on a rugged slope wasn't a good idea. Without a moment's hesitation, I reached out and grabbed her hand. I pulled her up and away. Right up against me.

Bella sucked in a breath at our proximity. For a second I thought she was going to kiss me, but she shook her head, cleared her throat and turned around. "Thanks, Edward. I owe you one."

I was still standing there mouth open, gaping like an idiot. I wasn't sure how she was able to recover so quickly, but when I did she was already several yards in front of me. I jogged, carefully avoiding the roots that stuck out of the ground, to catch up with Bella.

We didn't really speak the rest of the way.

With the sun set, Jake and a few of his friends lit a bonfire. The entire time Bella was egging them on, telling them to make the fire bigger and bigger. They laughed and called her crazy. At least I wasn't the only person completely ensnared by her.

It was almost 2 in the morning when I got home.

2 in the morning, on a Monday-well now Tuesday. A school night. I don't know how Bella had found anything to do in this dump of a town, but she had. She'd found her fun. And it was sort of terrifying the things that she considered fun. But it was nothing less than what I'd expected. From the small crumbs I got from her past in Phoenix, this is how she liked to live- the way her eyes gleamed when she spoke about some of the things she'd done made me wish I'd seen her like that. And tonight I'd gotten a glimpse of that.

The way she'd gotten on Jake's bike without any fear in her astounded me. The way she let go of his waist and threw out her arms like she was having the time of her life was absolutely nuts. And then when we'd driven back, I guess she wanted to feel that again. She told me to grab the wheel, and before I'd even grabbed it, she was climbing out the back window. I'd turned around for a second at a time to see what she was doing, the way she stood on the bed of her pickup. She whooped and hollered and left the wind blow her hair back. She was downright majestic. I tried to subtly slow the truck down, but each time I did she looked at me with disapproval until I sped up. I was certain we'd get pulled over and I'd get into boatloads of trouble, but we never did.

Or the way she'd danced around the bonfire. No one else had been, but by the time she was done, everyone else was up and partying. I wasn't sure how she turned into a low-key bonfire into a full on party, but she did. These were people she hadn't even known before and the way she interacted with them, not quite flirting but much more forward and talkative that I'd ever seen her in real life. Would we be different tomorrow now that I'd seen her in, what looked like, her own element?

I couldn't remember another time I'd ever had that much fun in my life.

But the best part of the night was when we were alone. Bella had dropped me off. As she approached my house, she killed the headlights to avoid detection. Then she got out of the car, still slightly flushed from all of our escapades today. I climbed out and we just stood in front of each other for a moment. Nothing could be heard except the slight crinkling of the leaves in the wind and the cicadas chirping into the night. I was about to say goodnight when Bella took another step toward me. Without any warning, though maybe my brain just couldn't process or think with Bella anywhere near me, she closed the gap between us. Her lips pressed to mine. I didn't need to process that, my hands grabbed her waist and pulled her even closer.

We stayed like that until we were both breathless. Without another word, she turned on her heels and walked back into her truck. At first, I thought I had done something wrong, but as if she could read my mind, she turned her head from inside the car and smiled. With a single wave, she drove away.

I walked into the house. All the lights were off and I felt victorious like I had just pulled off some massive heist or something. I literally had never done something like this. I didn't break curfew. I actually had never discussed curfew with my parent because I rarely went out. Silently, I opened the door and carefully shut it behind me. I began my quiet shuffle to the stairs.

Just as I made it to the stairwell, the lights flicked on.

"You have no idea how much I've always wanted to do that," my mom quietly laughed.

I clutched my chest that was now racing at the scare. "You scared the sh- the crap out of me!"

"I told your father I'd wait up for you, but I don't think he expected you back this late," she smiled.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't keeping track of time and-"

"It's alright," she laughed again. "I was just teasing. I'm happy that you had fun."

"You're not mad?" I asked, completely dumbfounded. She'd literally just caught me sneaking back in at 2 in the morning, how could she not be mad?

"You've always been too hard on yourself, you deserve to have a little fun."

"I'm confused, you're not mad that I out this late on a school night, and you're glad that I had fun? This is really weird."

"As long as you don't make it a habit, you're correct." I nodded and turned back to the stairs. "Oh, and Edward? Let's keep this between the two of us. Your brother, on the other hand, doesn't need any encouragement. Lord knows how many times we've caught him sneaking in and out."

"Okay, Mom," I chuckled. "Good night."

"Good night."

I fell asleep that night thinking and dreaming about Bella.

Here's the translation for Bella's monologue. It's from Carmen by Lana Del Rey. It's the spoken part of the song, if you were interested.

"My love, I know that you love me too.
You need me, you need me in your life.
You can't live without me
And I'd die without you.
I'd kill for you."